Saving You
by crazytomboy78
Summary: The one time Tony's armor could not be there for him just so happened to be the time when Tony's life was on a very thin line. Pepperony, one-shot.


Tony grabbed Pepper's wrist and ran. This time was not like the other times; this time they were in the middle of the city and they were being chased by a bunch of thugs. He knew that the only chance they had to defeat their pursuers was to get to the armory and get in the armor. He knew that the only chance he would have of saving Pepper from being beat or hurt in any way by the thugs who were chasing them; and he knew he would not have her getting hurt.

He couldn't remember what had brought them to run from thugs in the first place; they were just walking home from school (Rhodey had a doctor's appointment so he'd left school early) and before they knew it a group of cliché robbers were chasing them all because Tony had said "You know you're not going to get away with that right?" _Now that I think about it, maybe I shouldn't have said that…_But he'd stuck up for his beliefs and look where that had gotten him.

Tony and Pepper turned the corner in hopes that it would at least slow the thieves down. Tony glanced behind him quickly to make sure that Pepper was still following behind him, and she was. Then he saw the first thug turn the corner and tightened his grip on Pepper's wrist then ran faster. He spotted a small alleyway and ducked inside it, making sure Pepper did too. Tony took her deep inside the alley so the thugs would not see them and hopefully would get lost. What had he said that upset them this much?

When Tony turned back to Pepper, he noticed that they were very close. The alleyway was a very small one and he hadn't noticed it until he saw his face just inches from hers. Her facial expression told him that she was very scared and didn't really know what was going on. He would explain that everything was fine, but he was afraid that if he moved his lips they would end up touching hers by accident and he would be kissing her—which wouldn't be entirely horrible, right?

"U-uhh, are we safe yet?" Pepper asked quietly. Tony was still trying to catch his breath.

"No, they're still looking for us. But as long as I can get to my armor we'll be perfectly safe." Tony explained. He was too concentrated on having her lips just inches from his to actually reassure her that everything was fine, this was nothing for Iron Man. He kept glancing at her lips, then back to her eyes, then to the street outside the small alley. They couldn't keep hiding forever; he knew they had to move.

Tony poked his head out of the small alleyway to see that the thugs were at the end of the sidewalk, searching for them. _Either they can really hold a grudge, or they just hate me because they know who I am…_Tony thought. He'd never really cared that he knew there were people in the world that wanted to hurt him—even before he created the armor—but now it seemed to be biting him in the butt.

"Okay, let's go. Turn left, if we go right we'll run right into them." Tony advised. Pepper, heavily blushing as she'd realized how close they were as well, rushed out first. Tony followed behind her, but when he saw the third thug wielding a gun aimed directly at Pepper he pushed her aside.

"Pepper watch out!" Tony exclaimed as the thug pulled the trigger. Pepper, having landed on the ground feet away from Tony, gasped as her eyes widened. It was as if that moment had gone in slow motion: Pepper landed on the sidewalk, saw the bullet fly towards Tony, and hit him square in the side. Pepper watched him fall to the ground in shock and depression. _No no no, he's not dead! He's not…he's not…_Pepper thought, panicked. The thugs smiled deviously and stepped towards Pepper slowly. She inched towards the wall quickly, very scared. _Tony is dead and I'm next, _Pepper thought in a panic. They were getting closer and closer, wielding guns and knives and such. I could get beaten, she thought, they could do terrible things to me!

But as they came closer, they froze. They had been attacked—by Tony? Pepper was awestruck by the motion. Tony had pushed them aside from her, despite the level of weakness he had reached. The thugs had been scared away when Tony grabbed the knife and pointed it at them, and now Tony was standing over her, wincing in pain yet holding out a hand to her. Pepper remained still and just stared at him, awestruck and shocked.

Finally, Pepper took his hand for support for her to stand. But with Pepper pulling on Tony's arm brought her body weight, which weakened Tony more. In simple words, when she stood, Tony fell to the ground. Pepper gasped and leaned down beside him. Pepper saw what looked like a wet spot on Tony's side, and she knew it was blood blending in with his red shirt. Pepper shook her head in disbelief.

"No, Tony you're okay," Pepper begged him to be okay, but she knew words would do no good in this situation. Pepper removed Tony's hand from where he'd been shot to see tons more blood than he'd allowed her to see. Tony was shaking his head.

"I'm fine, I'm not dying," Tony said weakly. He knew he was, but he didn't want to upset her. Pepper, knelt over Tony, felt tears drip down her cheeks; yet she ignored them when they fell onto Tony's shirt.

Pepper would not tolerate it. She scooped Tony up with all her strength, yet he was still very heavy for her. She staggered down the city streets, in the direction of the hospital. She disregarded people passing by who saw that she was struggling to carry Tony and didn't do anything, but Tony's groans scared and saddened her.

"Pepper, please," he groaned weakly. More tears flowed down her cheeks. She couldn't bear to hear Tony so weakened—at least not again. One near-death experience was too much for her to bear, two was too much. He couldn't die again; she wouldn't let him die again.

Pepper nearly dropped Tony in surprise when she felt her phone start to vibrate; she was getting a call. She knew she couldn't stop now, and she cursed whoever felt the need to talk to her now of all moments. It's likely it's dad calling me wondering where I am, Pepper thought, but he wouldn't mind if I told him why I'd been late getting home.

"Pepper stop, please," Tony moaned once more. His voice made her tears flow faster.

"I'm not giving up on you, Tony! I can't let you die!" Pepper exclaimed. She was becoming irritated that no one was bothering to help her carry a dying teenager to the hospital; not to mention that in all of the craziness that they had experienced through the day she could barely remember where the hospital was. She glanced down at Tony and noticed that the spot under her chin on Tony's shirt was damp with her tears. She didn't care, though, all she cared for was getting Tony to the place where he could be saved and her heart could be mended with the sound of his healthy voice.

Pepper spotted the hospital in the distance, and her phone went off again. Whoever was calling her was being persistent. Pepper managed to grab her bag without removing her hand from Tony and fished her Bluetooth from it. She placed it on her ear and pressed the button to turn it on.

"Hello?" She answered with a shaky voice. It was Rhodey.

"Pepper, where are you guys? I tried calling Tony but he won't answer." Rhodey asked. Pepper could not, for the life of her, get her voice to sound normal.

"I-I'll call you later, Rhodey, I'm sorry," Pepper hung up and kicked open the emergency door to the hospital. The officials there looked at her questioningly.

"This boy is going to die if you don't help him _NOW!_" Pepper demanded. They immediately pulled up a gurney and Pepper placed Tony on top of it. Tony was still very weary, and he was begging for Pepper to take him away from the hospital. Pepper shook her head as he followed him on the way to the emergency room.

"No, Tony, I won't let you die again!" Pepper exclaimed. Then the officials asked what was wrong with him, and Pepper explained that he had been shot in the side and his time was running out very quickly. As they rushed Tony into the emergency room, they informed Pepper that she was not allowed past this point and that she would just have to wait in the waiting room. Before Pepper was shut out, she waved sadly at Tony and watched him weakly wave back.

Pepper couldn't even sit in a waiting room chair. She paced and paced, and finally dialed her father's phone and explained that she didn't know when she'd be home because a friend was in the hospital. Then she dialed Rhodey to tell him.

"WHAT?" Rhodey exclaimed, "What happened?" He asked.

"I'll explain everything when you get here, just hurry!" Pepper said in response. She hung up, stuffed her phone away in her bag, and paced the waiting room again.

It seemed that it hadn't taken Rhodey long to get to the hospital, because he arrived in a matter of minutes. He saw Pepper's distress and hurried over to her. Pepper was way more distressed than she had been when she had been on the phone.

"Pepper, what happened?" Rhodey asked. Pepper stopped pacing.

"We were walking home from school, and…thugs, and guns, and…" Pepper had a panic attack in between words, her breath heaving in an out in a panicked way. Rhodey placed either of his hands on her shoulders and shook some sense into her.

"Pepper, take a deep breath and then tell me what happened." Rhodey said, very calm sounding for what was happening.

"Tony and I, we were walking home from school when we saw these thugs robbing some place, and Tony said that they were going to get caught and they know it, and then they got really mad at him for saying it so we ran and they started to chase us, and we ran and ran until we hid in an alleyway and he was so close to my face because it was a small alley and then we walked out and, and they shot him!" Pepper said quickly. Rhodey was able to pick out the important parts of Pepper's worried babbling.

"Where was he shot?" Rhodey asked.

"In the side, why?" Pepper said, still in a worried tone.

"Because, as long as it wasn't near his heart there's a good chance he'll be okay." Rhodey said. Pepper sat down on the waiting room chair in sudden shock. She absorbed what had happened through the day.

"He took the shot for me," Pepper said quietly.

"I'm sorry?" Rhodey asked,

"He took the bullet for me…" Pepper said. Rhodey sat down beside her.

"Pepper, I know Tony. And if I know Tony, I know that he took that shot for you because he really cares about you," Rhodey explained. Pepper looked up at him.

"He does?" Rhodey nodded. Pepper smiled, but before she could say anything the doctor came into the waiting room.

"Your friend should be just fine," he said as he approached them. Pepper let out a heavy breath which she didn't know she'd been holding. She felt the hope pouring back into her as the doctor led them to Tony's hospital room.

"We'll just have to keep him here overnight to assure he heals well," The doctor explained. That much had been expected, given that Tony had to heal from getting a bullet surgically removed.

"The unfortunate part is that the bullet has caused some internal bleeding, and we're doing the best we can to stop it; and so far it's almost stopped. We just like to keep him overnight to assure that all aspects of the injury heal correctly." the doctor explained. Pepper and Rhodey took in the information and the doctor opened the door to Tony's hospital room. Pepper stopped in her tracks when she saw Tony lying on the hospital bed with his shirt removed and his waist wrapped in white gauze and medical tape. The area where the bullet wound had been was evident as there was a good sized red spot on his side.

Pepper approached Tony slowly. He was still out cold from the surgery, but she felt the tears come to her eyes again; but this time they were tears of joy. He was going to be okay.

Tony was beginning to wake up now, and Pepper was by his bedside with her hand atop his. Tony looked around to see Rhodey standing by the foot of the bed, and Pepper sitting beside him with a rejoicing smile on her face and tears drying in her eyes. Tony smiled at her wearily.

"Pepper," he whispered, still weak from being put to sleep for surgery. "You're always there for me." Tony brushed away Pepper's tears of joy with his thumb and caressed her cheek with his hand. Pepper placed her hand atop the one that was placed on her cheek. She had longed to hear his voice sound healthy and like it didn't sound like he was dying, and now he was coming to and he would be alright. Pepper felt as if she had been given a miracle.

"I always will be, Tony," They seemed to have forgotten that Rhodey was there, but Rhodey didn't mind anyways. He wanted them to be together, because he knew they liked each other and he knew that the day they got together was inevitable. Besides, he thought, they're cute together.

Then Tony cast his gaze from Pepper to Rhodey.

"This must have been a very off day for you," Tony said. Rhodey smirked.

"With you, Tony, it's always an off day." Rhodey joked. Tony smiled.

"But my mom's calling me home and she doesn't know what happened, so I'll see you tomorrow dude." Rhodey explained. Part of his departure was for the reason he explained, but it was more for the purpose of leaving Tony and Pepper alone.

Once Rhodey had exited, Pepper said, "Tony, why did you take that shot for me?" Tony smiled.

"Pepper, I would die for you. Besides, what kind of hero would I be if I just let a citizen take a bullet?" Pepper smiled sincerely. Tony will be Tony, she thought. Pepper hugged Tony.

"You'll always be my knight in shining armor, Tony." Pepper released Tony and Tony was sitting up when he leaned over and kissed her.

~…~

The next afternoon, Tony had been released from the hospital and slowly was walking home with Pepper and Rhodey. Rhodey had explained to his mother that Tony had been shot in the side, but would be perfectly fine and would get out of the hospital tomorrow and advised her not to worry. They were walking slowly, thanks to Tony, but it was only to be careful with Tony and not take things too fast for a little while. He would be a bit weaker than normal for a little while as he recovered from surgery, the doctor had explained. Tony had his hand intertwined with Pepper's, and Pepper gladly took his hand as a sign that she had been given a miracle by Tony surviving.

"By the way, Tony," Pepper smiled, "You're my miracle."

**Umm, can you say ADORABLE? Ahh, I love this idea. I ended it on quite an awesome part, there didn't I? Well review then!**


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